Aviatra Board Spotlight: Cheryl Stamm

Cheryl Coy Stamm has been with Aviatra Accelerators since the very beginning. She served as Board Chair of Aviatra for 5 years and currently serves as the Corporate Advisory Board Chair. I sat down with Cheryl to learn a little bit and to share her story.

How/when did you first get involved with Aviatra?
I have been involved since the very first class.  I met the founder  in 2009 through a software colleague when she first had the concept for the organization.

How do you contribute to our organization? What attracted you to our organization?
I was transitioning from the corporate world to start my own consulting firm to help small businesses with their sales strategies and business development.  At that time I met the founder and was asked to attend a meeting.  I was hooked from then.  The passion the local community had to support this effort to help women entrepreneurs was contagious.

The first loan fund was put together from local individuals committed with money, time and connections.  I then helped put together the first formal board for the organization.  I was board chair for 5 years,  emeritus board member for one year, and now chair of the advisory board.  I contribute through my time, talent, money and connections brought to the organization.

Why does Aviatra matter to you? What motivates you to stay involved?
Aviatra matters to me because it is the only female-focused incubator that supports women across all industries; whether B2B or B2C.  I am motivated to stay because these women are making a difference with over $110M in combined revenues in 2016/17 and the many jobs they are creating.  The satisfaction is overwhelming.  I plan to stay involved for the foreseeable future and to see the organization go nationwide.

What do you hope the organization will achieve in the near future? In the long term?
Financial stability in the near term and a national partner in the long term.

Do you have an anecdote about our organization that really moved you?
One of our funders used an organic drink for his wife who has brain cancer.  He attributes her still being alive to this formula created by one of our Graduate winners – Robin Gentry, CEO of Functional Formularies.  He then went on to invest in her company and sits on her board.

Who is your favorite female role model? 
Sheryl Sandberg and Sara Blakely

Any advice to give to female entrepreneurs or a final message to share?
Ask for help all along the way.  Those that take advantage of our networks and programs have a better chance of success.  No one can do it alone.

More about Cheryl Stamm:
In 2010 Cheryl left the corporate world to focus on helping small businesses gain access to capital through her work as Board Chair of Aviatra Accelerators.  She continues with her efforts to democratize access to capital for women owned businesses and access to capital markets for investors through consulting and investing in these businesses.   Cheryl also consults with small businesses to assist in building sales plans, sales processes and business development.

Cheryl is a professional sales executive with 30+ years of successful sales management and direct sales experience in the software industry.  Cheryl’s skills include executive level solution selling to Fortune 500 companies, strategic planning, building sales plans, forecasting,  and P&L responsibility in  both sales and presales activities.  In her roles she has managed and mentored sales managers and sales representatives to achieve their goals by selling to the C level executives, focusing on the salient business issues, working in a team environment and executing on the business plan.

Cheryl was VP of Sales for Balanced Insight, Inc., (a Cincy Tech portfolio company) focused on Agile Business Intelligence delivery software.  Prior to that Cheryl spent 6 years at SAS Institute as Sr. Sales Director managing a $45M division selling Business Intelligence solutions to the Fortune 500 companies in discrete manufacturing, automotive and commercial services; (GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Whirlpool, TransUnion, LexisNexis, Nielsen, Cardinal Health, Hertz, Enterprise).  In this role she managed a team of 20 individuals made up of 3 sales managers and 17 account executives.  In her last year at SAS the business grew 12% which was made up of $10M in new sales and recurring revenue of $35M.

Prior to SAS, Cheryl was with startup company, Synchrony Systems, as VP Sales.  At Synchrony Cheryl worked with Balanced Insight CEO, Tom Hammergren, and along with Synchrony CEO, Mark Richey, grew the company and sold to Divine.  Synchrony developed and sold eCRM software for the call center space..

Cheryl is on the development committee at the Cincinnati Art Museum and enjoys the arts.  The arts and love of travel are key hobbies.